These rules exist to keep Ether Online fair, safe, and enjoyable for everyone who plays. By logging in, entering our official community spaces, or otherwise participating in Ether Online, you agree to follow both the letter and the spirit of these rules.
Read this first. These rules are not a checklist for finding loopholes. Where a rule lists examples, the list is illustrative and never exhaustive. If your behavior obviously violates the intent of a rule, "the rule didn't literally say so" is not a defense. The Ether Online team reserves the sole right to interpret and enforce these rules.
I. General Conduct
1. Treat everyone with respect. Communicate and interact with other players, staff, and community members in a reasonable and civil manner at all times.
2. No harassment, bullying, or targeting. Do not repeatedly bother, insult, humiliate, isolate, follow, or pressure another player. This includes coordinating with others to do so.
3. No hate speech or discrimination. Content that attacks, demeans, or dehumanizes individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristics is strictly prohibited. This includes slurs in any language and any attempt to disguise them.
4. No threats or incitement to violence. Do not threaten, wish, joke about, or encourage real-world harm, violence, or serious consequences against any person.
5. No doxxing or privacy violations. Do not share, seek out, request, or attempt to obtain another person's private information (real name, address, phone number, workplace, photos, IDs, etc.) without their clear consent. This applies whether the information is shared in-game, in official spaces, or elsewhere as a result of Ether Online activity.
6. No intentional disruption. Do not deliberately provoke arguments, stir drama, or engage in behavior whose purpose is to damage the community experience.
7. Follow reasonable staff instructions. When authorized staff give a reasonable instruction, comply. If you believe a staff action was wrong, use the proper appeal channel — do not argue in public spaces or retaliate.
II. Chat and Communication
8. No spam or flooding. Do not send repeated, meaningless, excessively capitalized, or high-volume messages that overwhelm or disrupt chat.
9. No unauthorized advertising. Do not use Ether Online channels to promote unrelated products, services, communities, websites, or other games without prior written authorization from the Ether Online team.
10. No malicious or suspicious content. Do not share links, files, downloads, or attachments that are — or that you have any reason to believe may be — malicious, deceptive, or unsafe. This includes malware, viruses, keyloggers, phishing pages, and scam links.
11. No adult, graphic, or disturbing content. Do not share pornographic, sexually explicit, gore, shock, or otherwise disturbing content in any official Ether Online space.
12. No impersonation. Do not present yourself as another player, staff member, Game Master, Administrator, Developer, Moderator, or any other official representative of Ether Online. This includes names, avatars, tags, titles, signatures, and messaging patterns designed to create that impression.
13. No misuse of the report system. Do not submit knowingly false reports, mass-report players out of spite, or use reports to harass. Legitimate reports made in good faith are welcome even if they turn out to be mistaken.
14. No misinformation presented as official. Do not spread false information while implying it comes from Ether Online staff or official sources.
15. Use channels as intended. Trade in trade channels, look for a group in group channels, and so on. Persistent misuse of a channel is disruptive.
III. Account Security
16. Your account is your responsibility. Keep your credentials, recovery methods, and connected email secure. You are accountable for actions taken from your account.
17. One account, one owner. Do not access, use, borrow, lend, sell, share, or transfer accounts, or attempt to do so, without explicit authorization from the Ether Online team. Sharing an account may forfeit your ability to recover it.
18. No security bypass. Do not attempt to bypass, defeat, or manipulate passwords, verification steps, recovery flows, account restrictions, active punishments, or any other security or enforcement mechanism.
19. No ban evasion. Do not create, use, or acquire another account to avoid an active mute, suspension, or ban. Assisting another player with ban evasion is treated the same as evading yourself.
20. No phishing or credential theft. Do not request, collect, phish for, distribute, or otherwise obtain another player's login credentials. Creating fake login pages, fake staff messages, or fake support flows is a severe violation.
21. Report security issues responsibly. If you discover a genuine vulnerability that could compromise accounts or the game, report it privately to the Ether Online team. Do not test it against real accounts, publicly disclose it, or exploit it while you wait for a response.
IV. Cheats and Unauthorized Software
22. No cheats, hacks, or unfair advantage tools. Any software, script, tool, technique, or third-party service that provides a gameplay advantage not available through normal play is prohibited. This includes but is not limited to aim assistance, wall hacks, speed hacks, teleport tools, damage modifiers, and any tool that reveals hidden information.
23. No unauthorized automation. Bots, macros, auto-clickers, auto-farming, auto-loot, and any tool that performs gameplay actions without your active, moment-to-moment input are prohibited unless explicitly approved by the Ether Online team.
24. No unattended play. Do not use any method — automated, physical, or otherwise — to keep your character active while you are not present at the controls.
25. No client or memory tampering. Do not modify, inject into, patch, reverse-engineer for advantage, or otherwise alter the game client, its files, its memory, or its runtime behavior.
26. No network or packet manipulation. Do not intercept, modify, replay, forge, or otherwise tamper with traffic between the client and Ether Online's servers.
27. No anti-cheat interference. Do not bypass, disable, spoof, hide from, or otherwise interfere with any anti-cheat, detection, or security system.
28. No creation, sale, distribution, or promotion of cheats. Making cheats for Ether Online, selling them, sharing them, teaching others to use them, providing accounts for their use, or organizing groups to cheat are all prohibited.
29. No assisting with cheating. Actively helping another player cheat — including through advice, tools, accounts, or coordination — is treated as cheating.
30. No concealment. Attempting to hide prohibited software, delete evidence, or obstruct an investigation is treated as a serious aggravating factor.
V. Bugs and Exploits
31. No intentional exploitation. Do not intentionally use bugs, glitches, unintended mechanics, or oversights to gain any advantage — including but not limited to item, currency, or equipment duplication; unintended rewards from quests, events, NPCs, or drops; unintended combat, skill, or movement effects; unintended access to areas or content; and unintended behavior in trading, marketplace, or inventory systems.
32. Should-have-known standard. If a reasonable player would recognize that a mechanic is unintended — for example, results that are wildly disproportionate to input, or actions the game clearly does not expect — repeated use is treated as intentional exploitation regardless of what you claim you believed.
33. No inducing crashes or instability. Do not intentionally crash your client, another player's client, or any Ether Online system, and do not intentionally generate abnormal load intended to degrade performance.
34. Report and stop. Report serious bugs privately to the Ether Online team. If staff informs you that a mechanic is a bug and instructs you to stop using it, you must stop immediately. Continued use after notice is treated as a severe violation.
35. Do not distribute, sell, or teach exploits. Publicly sharing, selling access to, or writing tutorials for undisclosed exploits is prohibited.
36. Exploited assets are recoverable. Items, currency, characters, progress, rankings, and other assets obtained through, laundered through, or knowingly received from an exploit may be removed, reversed, or adjusted at any time, without compensation, from any account they touch.
37. Do not launder or knowingly accept exploited assets. Transferring exploited assets between accounts, splitting them across characters, converting them into other items or currency, or knowingly accepting them from another player is prohibited.
VI. Trading and Real-Money Trading (RMT)
38. Trading and RMT are permitted. Players may trade permitted in-game items and currency with one another, and may participate in permitted real-money transactions, subject to the rules below and to the Top-Up Terms.
39. Check every trade. You are responsible for verifying the items, currency, quantities, and terms of any transaction before confirming it. Accidental confirmations are generally not reversed.
40. No scamming or deception. Do not deceive another player about the contents, value, terms, or completion of a transaction. This includes fake payment screenshots, fake confirmations, fake trade windows, bait-and-switch item swaps, and false claims that payment has been sent.
41. No fake authority or fake guarantees. Do not claim, imply, or fabricate staff involvement, staff approval, staff guarantees, or official escrow in a transaction.
42. No exploited or illegitimately obtained assets. Do not trade items or currency you obtained through exploits, cheats, stolen accounts, chargebacks, or any other prohibited method, and do not knowingly accept such assets.
43. Reports and investigations. Report suspected scams and staff impersonators through the proper channels. The Ether Online team may investigate and take action based on available evidence, including reversing transactions where appropriate.
44. Normal trading is not a violation. Ordinary player-to-player trading and permitted RMT are allowed. Only the prohibited behaviors above (scamming, impersonation, laundering illegitimate assets, etc.) constitute a violation of this section.
VII. Gameplay and Fair Play
45. Play through intended systems. Progress your character, guild, ranking, and rewards through gameplay as designed. Do not manipulate systems, restrictions, requirements, or leaderboards through unauthorized means.
46. No sabotage or event disruption. Do not intentionally sabotage other players' gameplay, disrupt official events, or interfere with legitimate competition through prohibited methods.
47. No unauthorized data manipulation. Do not attempt to modify, create, add, or delete client-side or server-side game data, items, currency, character statistics, or any other game state outside of intended gameplay.
48. No bypass of level, class, map, or event restrictions. Do not use exploits, tools, or unauthorized methods to enter content, use abilities, or access rewards you are not entitled to.
49. No PvP or competitive abuse. In competitive contexts — PvP, ranked play, tournaments, and official events — the use of any prohibited method is treated as a severe violation and may result in event bans and forfeiture of rewards.
VIII. Staff, Reports, and Enforcement
50. Respect all staff. Game Masters, Administrators, Developers, Moderators, and other authorized personnel are here to help. Do not threaten, harass, insult, or repeatedly target staff members, and do not interfere with their official duties.
51. Cooperate with investigations. Do not obstruct, mislead, or manipulate evidence during an investigation. Fabricating screenshots, edited recordings, forged messages, or any other false evidence is a serious violation on its own.
52. Provide honest reports. Submit reports in good faith and with the most accurate information you have.
53. Penalties. Depending on the violation, penalties may include (without limitation): private or public warnings, chat mutes, feature restrictions, temporary suspensions, permanent bans, character or guild renaming or deletion, removal or rollback of illegitimately obtained assets, forfeiture of event rewards and rankings, and revocation of purchased virtual items obtained through fraud or chargeback.
54. Factors considered. Staff may consider severity, intent, frequency, prior history, cooperation, evidence, and impact on the game and community when determining the appropriate response. Aggravating factors (organization, concealment, targeting minors, real-world harm, financial harm) may result in immediate maximum penalties.
55. Repeated and severe violations. Repeated violations may escalate to progressively stronger penalties. Severe violations may result in immediate permanent removal without prior warning.
56. No punishment evasion or assistance. Do not evade an active punishment, and do not help another player do so.
IX. Character, Guild, and Identifier Names
57. Names must be community-appropriate. Character names, guild names, guild tags, titles, and any other publicly visible player identifier must be suitable for a public gaming community.
58. Prohibited name content. Names must not contain or reference:
- vulgar, obscene, or extremely offensive language;
- sexual, pornographic, or sexually suggestive content;
- slurs or hate speech of any kind;
- threats, harassment, or targeting of any person or group;
- discriminatory, extremist, or hateful ideology;
- controlled substances, self-harm, or other seriously inappropriate subjects;
- URLs, advertising, or references to malicious or deceptive links.
59. No impersonation through names. Do not use names, tags, or titles that could reasonably lead others to believe you are official staff (GM, Admin, Developer, Moderator, Support, etc.), another specific player, or an official representative of Ether Online.
60. No filter evasion. Do not use spaces, symbols, numbers, alternate scripts, look-alike characters, unusual spellings, or any other technique to disguise a name that would otherwise be prohibited. Disguised names are treated the same as the underlying prohibited name.
61. Enforcement. The Ether Online team may rename, disable, or otherwise moderate any character, guild, tag, title, or identifier that violates these rules. Repeatedly creating inappropriate names after being warned is a separate violation.
62. When in doubt, choose something else. If you are uncertain whether a name is appropriate, it probably is not.
X. General Provisions and Anti-Loophole Clause
63. Non-exhaustive rules. The examples, categories, and lists in these rules are illustrative, not exhaustive. Behavior that clearly violates the intent of a rule violates the rule, even if the specific act is not named.
64. What is not permitted is not permitted. The absence of a specific prohibition does not create a right or permission. If the Ether Online team determines that a behavior seriously harms the game, its economy, its security, its players, or its community, action may be taken even if the exact situation is not enumerated above.
65. Attempts count. Attempting to violate a rule — even unsuccessfully — is treated as a violation.
66. Aiding, encouraging, or benefiting from a violation. Helping another player break a rule, encouraging them to do so, providing tools or accounts for the purpose, or knowingly benefiting from another player's violation is itself a violation.
67. No manipulation through misrepresentation. You may not obtain items, currency, refunds, punishments against others, reversals, or any other outcome by lying to staff, fabricating evidence, or exploiting good-faith processes.
68. Off-platform conduct. Serious conduct that takes place outside Ether Online — for example, coordinating harassment, doxxing, RMT scams, or account theft on external platforms and targeting Ether Online players or the game itself — may be subject to enforcement inside Ether Online.
69. Rules may be updated. These rules may be updated at any time to address new situations, exploits, or community concerns. The current version is always the version that applies. Players are responsible for staying informed.
70. Final authority. The Ether Online team has sole discretion to interpret and enforce these rules. Enforcement decisions may be appealed only through official appeal channels and only in the manner specified there.
71. Agreement. By playing Ether Online or participating in its official community, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to follow these rules.
Questions and Appeals
Questions about these rules, or an appeal against an enforcement decision, may be sent to mail@playetheronline.com, or through our support desk.
Play fair. Respect others. Enjoy Hestia.
— The Ether Online Team